The Pebble and the Avalanche shows how the Internet, the auto industry, music downloading, and other rapidly evolving industries are all connected by the same dynamic -- disaggregation. Moshe Yudkowsky shows why this dynamic is crucial to survival in the 21st century marketplace, and how you can use it to bring about change in your industry.

Disaggregation means taking things apart -- for example, the break-up of AT& T, which greatly improved phone service. But there are more subtle examples. Separating information from the storage medium -- digital music doesn't rely on records, tapes, or CDs; digital photographs don't require paper; and digital movies don't need film -- has enabled millions of people to create and share their work (and others') far more easily than ever before, with enormous implications.

Think of this process as an avalanche: at the top of a mountain, rocks are jammed together in a solid mass. Pry some of these rocks loose and you will unleash a tremendous outpouring of energy that sweeps everything from its path. The same thing happens in technology: with the right innovation, you can pry the pieces of technology apart and unleash an outpouring of powerful ideas that shake apart whole industries.

Yudkowsky details exactly how disaggregation works, describing five different ways of taking things apart, and the many ways it can be used to generate new innovations. The Pebble and the Avalanche provides strategies for successfully adapting to a disaggregation revolution, and points towards the future, identifying several industries that are about to be completely transformed by disaggregation.

詳細書訊

The Pebble and the Avalanche shows how the Internet, the auto industry, music downloading, and other rapidly evolving industries are all connected by the same dynamic -- disaggregation. Moshe Yudkowsky shows why this dynamic is crucial to survival in the 21st century marketplace, and how you can use it to bring about change in your industry.

Disaggregation means taking things apart -- for example, the break-up of AT& T, which greatly improved phone service. But there are more subtle examples. Separating information from the storage medium -- digital music doesn't rely on records, tapes, or CDs; digital photographs don't require paper; and digital movies don't need film -- has enabled millions of people to create and share their work (and others') far more easily than ever before, with enormous implications.

Think of this process as an avalanche: at the top of a mountain, rocks are jammed together in a solid mass. Pry some of these rocks loose and you will unleash a tremendous outpouring of energy that sweeps everything from its path. The same thing happens in technology: with the right innovation, you can pry the pieces of technology apart and unleash an outpouring of powerful ideas that shake apart whole industries.

Yudkowsky details exactly how disaggregation works, describing five different ways of taking things apart, and the many ways it can be used to generate new innovations. The Pebble and the Avalanche provides strategies for successfully adapting to a disaggregation revolution, and points towards the future, identifying several industries that are about to be completely transformed by disaggregation.

目錄列表

Cover Page

Title Page

Copyright Page

Preface

Acknowledgments

Part I. Disaggregation: Why the Sum of the Parts Is Greater Than the Whole

Chapter One Disaggregation: The Driving Force of Revolution

Taking Things Apart: Recent Revolutions

Disaggregation: The Science of Taking Things Apart

Chapter Two Starting Revolutions: What to Take Apart

Step 1. Sort the Innovation

Step 2: Answer the Basic Questions

Step 3: Assess the Revolutionary Potential

Chapter 3 Benefits of Disaggregation: The Revolutionary’s Bill of Rights

Creativity

Competition

Cost Reduction

Simplicity

Specialization

Synergy

Chapter Four Four Stages to Revolution: Devise, Interface, Accept, Evaluate

Devise

Interface

Accept

Evaluate

An Important Distinction

Part II. Case Studies: Two Hundred Years of Revolutions

Chapter Five From Horses and Buggies to Jet Planes: The Revolution in Manufacturing

Chapter Six The Automobile Takes On the Railroads

The Industrial Age: Canals, Railways, and Automobiles

The Roadway

The Traffic

Network Management

The Business

Chapter Seven The Internet’s Permanent Revolution

The Ancient History of Networks: The 1970s and 1980s

Two Visions of the Worldwide Data Network

How and Why the Internet Won

Benefits of the Permanent Revolution

The Automobile and the Internet

Part III. Business Strategies: How to Cope, How to Fail, and How to Predict the Future

Chapter Eight Interfaces and Standards: The Nuts and Bolts of Modern Civilization

The Origin of Standard Parts

The Business Case for Standards

Business Case Errors

Standards and Obsolescence

The Benefits of Standards

Chapter Nine Coping with Surprises

Digital Photography

Five Steps to Remember: A, E, I, O, U

A Little Pep Talk

Chapter Ten Marx, Lenin, and Gates: Failed Counterrevolutions

Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin, and the Nuts and Bolts of Socialism

Bill Gates: Running the Wheels Backwards

The Open Source Challenge to Microsoft

Chapter Eleven The Role of Government

The Other Government

If You Lose Anyway

Chapter Twelve Predictions: Three Revolutions in Progress

XML: A Universal Language for Data

The End of the Telephone Company: Internet Telephony

The Amazing Exploding Computer: Jini and Bluetooth, or Something Like Them